Borderlands Ending Explained: It's Not Your Vault

This article contains major spoilers for "Borderlands."

The "Borderlands" series of video games are a unique breed: they can be thought of as action-oriented shooters, or they can be considered as character-based RPGs. Like so many "open-world" games of the last decade or so, they're structured in such a way that you could either spend your time curating a character and gallivanting across the wasteland of Pandora, or you could jump right into story-based missions and follow a scripted tale like the single-player games of old.

"Borderlands," the feature film adaptation, cannot possibly replicate the open-world aspects of the video game, so it must by default hone in on those story missions. As such, director and co-writer Eli Roth (with Joe Crombie officially co-credited on writing duties) attempts to distill the expansive universe of the "Borderlands" series into a coherent movie, and at least where coherence is concerned, does a pretty decent job.

While generic and derivative, the story of "Borderlands" the movie gains some points by not centering around some young 20-or-30-something hero, but instead puts the middle-aged Lilith (played by Cate Blanchett) front and center. Like so many films about older, more mature characters, "Borderlands" becomes more interesting when it's not some young upstart fighting for justice and freedom, but rather a veteran who's seen it all fighting for their own redemption and discovering new depths (and, in this case, special abilities) within themselves in the process.

"Borderlands" begins with a voiceover from Lilith describing the history of the Eridians, an ancient alien race who once enjoyed peace and prosperity through possessing numerous superpowers. Having died out long ago, the only remaining elements of their race and culture were left inside a Vault, which is supposedly located on a backwater planet known as Pandora. Because it's assumed that this Vault contains a treasure trove of all-powerful weapons, hundreds of people are looking for the way to enter it, everyone from mercenaries known as Vault Hunters to the Atlas Corporation, run by a man called Atlas (Edgar Ramírez), and its in-house special forces army, the Crimson Lance.

Supposedly, Atlas' daughter, Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), contains the ability to open the Vault, which is why she's being held for ransom by a rogue faction of Crimson Lance soldiers led by Commander Knoxx (Janina Gavankar). Fortunately for her, another rogue soldier named Roland (Kevin Hart) breaks her out of prison, and with the help of a Berserker named Krieg (Florian Munteanu), they escape to Pandora.

Meanwhile, Lilith, a lifelong, no-nonsense bounty hunter, is on another planet attempting to bring a bounty in when she's confronted by Atlas (who's broadcasting his image onto the faces of lackeys that Lilith dispatches with a quickness) and offered a job tracking down Tina on Pandora. To help Lilith stay in touch when she acquires his daughter, Atlas gives her a contact device, which will activate once she presses its button. After Atlas kills her other bounty, Lilith begrudgingly takes off for Pandora.

Lilith is not at all pleased to be back on Pandora — the wasteland of a planet being the once-idyllic place she grew up — now tarnished by legions of Vault Hunters, Raiders, Berserkers, Crimson Lance and all manner of scum. Soon after she begins her search for Tina, she's afforded a most unwelcome companion: a talkative robot named Claptrap (Jack Black) who informs Lilith that he's been mysteriously programmed to aid her until her demise. With Claptrap's help, Lilith finds Tiny Tina, and no sooner attempts to apprehend the girl when Tina and Krieg turn the tables and fight back.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the explosions Tina sets off during the scuffle attract the attention of Knoxx, who is about to sick her entire regiment of Crimson Lance on the group when Roland turns up in a battle-ready truck, rescuing his crew and Lilith along with them. The group makes their escape through the lair of a creature known as a Thresher (who apparently uses its lair as one big toilet), literally shooting their way out of the belly of the beast.

Once safe again, Roland tries to exile Lilith but the bounty hunter explains that having now gotten into a scuffle with the Lance, she's as much of a wanted felon as the rest of them. Reluctantly, they all agree to travel to Sanctuary City to find someone to help them on their quest: to find and open the Vault before Atlas or anyone else does, especially now that they've already found a Vault Key.

In Sanctuary, the crew meets up with their contact, Moxxi (Gina Gershon), a madam and saloon owner who has connections everywhere thanks to her Pandoran roots. That includes knowing Lilith from before the woman left the planet, and especially Lilith's Mom (Haley Bennett), who she was friends with before her death. Moxxi gives the crew the passcode to the secret office and lab of Dr. Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), another Pandoran who has particular expertise with the planet's history, especially when it comes to the Vault.

Turns out that Lilith and Tannis have their own history, too, and it's on far more sour terms: Tannis, who was also friends with Lilith's Mom, was tasked with handing Lilith over to some pirates and scavengers when Mom insisted on getting her daughter off Pandora. While the tension between the women simmers, Lilith takes a breather on Tannis' balcony, during which she speaks to Tiny Tina, who reveals that she's actually not Atlas' biological daughter, but a clone made from some preserved Eridian DNA, hence her "special" status and why Atlas badly wants her under his control again.

While the crew tries and plan their next move, Claptrap forces their hand by drawing attention to himself, causing an old Lance roommate of Roland's, Larry (Bobby Lee), to rat them out. If you didn't already get that our heroes were outcasts, the crew barely make their escape from this latest emergency by smuggling themselves out with the literal trash.

Using Tannis' dusty old files on the archeological history of Pandora, the crew realizes that the next Vault Key can be found somewhere at the bottom of an abandoned mine. Of course, in true "Indiana Jones" (or maybe it should be "Tomb Raider") fashion, the mine is littered with various death traps which include a river of acid and a legion of Berserkers. Lilith confers with Tannis as to how long their quest to find the last two Keys and open the Vault is going to take. Tannis reveals that this Key will be the last one they need to find because Tiny Tina herself is actually the third Key. Lilith is further disturbed to learn that, according to rumor and legend, opening the Vault may end up killing Tina.

Fortunately for the group and this movie's runtime, Lilith finds the Vault Key immediately, almost as if she could supernaturally sense its presence. Before anyone can guess why that might be, the crew tries to use Claptrap to distract the Berserker horde, which only works for just a few moments before everyone is making tracks for the exit while pew-pew-pew-ing at the baddies.

Once he realizes that the exit elevator isn't going to work unless he fixes some frayed wires, Roland takes one for the team, heroically declaring that he'll meet them at the Vault. As he heads off to take on a horde by himself, the rest of the group flies uncontrollably up at increasing speeds like they'd suddenly entered a Wonkavator. At the last moment before destruction, the crew is teleported to safety, and everyone agrees that the teleportation is a new Eridian superpower that Tina has discovered.

While what remains of the group takes a breather, Lilith wrestles with her conscience regarding what to do about her commitment to Atlas. When Claptrap reminds her of the communication device she's supposed to use to contact him, she makes the decision to smash it. However, Atlas had planned on this all along; the device wasn't for communication at all, but was rather a tracking beacon that's led him and his forces right to Tina. As another Atlas proxy reveals this to Lilith, Tina eavesdrops on their conversation, enough to believe that Lilith has betrayed her and her friends. Tina sets off an explosion, distracting Atlas' goons and knocking Lilith unconscious.

After Tina, Tannis, and Krieg flee, Lilith awakens to find herself and Claptrap in the ruins of what used to be the place where she grew up. Walking to her old home, Lilith comes upon a drawing that she'd made as a child of a phoenix, and when Claptrap scans the drawing, he collapses. It turns out that Lilith's Mom is who programmed Claptrap years ago to protect her, and in a video message she'd stored on the robot, she confesses that she sent Lilith away believing that her remaining on Pandora would be too dangerous, only to realize too late that keeping her there would've allowed her to discover her true identity sooner. That's right: this backwater bounty hunter has secretly been one of the few (perhaps only) living descendants of the Eridians, and it is she, not Tina, who has untapped superpowers, just like that teleportation stunt. In mythic terms, Lilith is the Chosen One, the legend returned: in "Borderlands" terms, she's what's known as a Firehawk.

Thanks to Tannis' map, she, Tina, and Krieg arrive at the Vault entrance, and a worried Tannis informs Tiny Tina that she may die when she opens the Vault. Tina scoffs, not believing Tannis, and it turns out she's half right; Tina doesn't die, but she doesn't open the Vault, either. A disheartened Tina is even more dismayed to discover that Atlas has also arrived, and that, upon seeing his latest clone fail to open the Vault, he plans to scrap her and start over with a new clone.

Fortunately, Lilith shows up just in time to save the day, and now she's got super Firehawk powers, too. These include lifting people into the air with, well, fire, and giving them protective shielding with, uh, more fire (don't question it, I guess). Just as Lilith is being made to open the Vault at gunpoint (the process of opening the dimensional door transforming her into her Firehawk form), a still-alive Roland shows up to help out his old buddies.

Sure enough, the entire canyon where the Vault entrance erupts into a firefight, and our heroes hold their own pretty well. Unfortunately, Atlas is cheap and not only uses a specialized shield suit to protect himself from all blows and blasts but also has a remote control hooked up to the huge cannons of his spaceship that's hovering overhead. Is this the end of "Borderlands?"

It is not! Lilith manages to find a workaround for attacking Atlas' gunship, sending a bolt of her fire powers up into the guns themselves, which detonates the ship from the inside and sends it crashing down into the canyon. Sadly, Atlas is not out of the game yet, and he takes Tiny Tina hostage, demanding to be let into the Vault. Working out a deal with the dastardly villain to let the rest of her friends go free, Lilith agrees to take Atlas into the Vault.

Upon stepping into the portal, Atlas is initially ecstatic to see the Eridian technology floating around him in all directions. He's also pretty cocky, given that he's still wearing his highly protective shield suit. However, he doesn't happen to be very observant, for Lilith is able to distract him long enough that she can discreetly remove his shield generator, allowing Tina to get a few kicks and licks in as retribution. Of course, it was foolish of Atlas to believe that he could take what was never his property, yet ironically, his ultimate fate is to become a permanent resident of the Vault. Lilith and Tiny Tina are not heartless people, however; they make sure he has a companion to keep him occupied, even if this companion happens to be ravenous and many tentacled.

Now that the Emperor — oh, sorry. Now that Sauron — ah, dangit. Now that Atlas is defeated, the city of Sanctuary erupts into celebration, knowing that their long years of living under his reign have ended (or maybe they're just happy that the Vault has finally been found and all those tourists with guns will stop showing up to visit). The crew admires their handiwork from Tannis' balcony, remarking how things are going to be different on Pandora now.

While the rest of the group decides to head down to the streets in order to join the party, Tiny Tina takes the opportunity to have a Lydia Deetz moment, asking Lilith if she could do "the thing." That thing isn't lifting her into the air and making her sing Harry Belafonte tunes; it's lighting herself on fire, flying into the sky and causing a big fireworks-style explosion in the form of a phoenix, or I suppose a Firehawk because otherwise, this would be an X-Men movie.

As Claptrap dances through the end credits, we're left to ponder whether this is the last we're going to see of Lilith, Tiny Tina, and all their compatriots; after all, the prognosis for further "Borderlands" adventures does not look too promising. At the very least, each of our heroes has remained true to themselves, with some even finding their true selves buried deep down in their own personal Vaults. If the "Borderlands" name remains strong, perhaps more adventures on Pandora are in order. If not, at least this "Borderlands" is intact, telling its own version of a classic genre adventure without any pesky cliffhangers or post-credits teases.